It's a Good Day When....

Remember when...
--the world went around humming and sometimes singing.

Maybe people have too many good for nothing days to sing about the good ones.
Maybe it's easier to say "Have a nice day"! than to actually have one.
Somebody struck it rich by replacing the American smile with a "Happy Face" button.

The "pursuit of happiness" has shaped the American character. As a matter of fact, happiness has become big business from the happy-face buttons to National Smile Week (that's been around since 1949).

Do we need a button or a greeting card to remind us to be happy? Would smiling prove that we are happy inside?

Maybe we should think less about the "pursuit of happiness" and concentrate on the "happiness of pursuit". This world is packed with causes that need pursuing:
---people who need understanding
---love
---a gentle hand
---a kind word
---a dinner invitation
---a prayer
---a listening ear
---an introduction to God

Look at the money people spend trying to buy happiness. Don't they know it's free!

What does the Bible have to say? Certainly nothing about buttons and cards - or pursuits.
Happy people are those whom God corrects...
are those who find wisdom...
are those who have mercy on the poor...
are those who trust in the Lord...

To think and pray about: Pray a lot, smile from the inside out, make every day happy in the Lord.
click here Proverbs 3:13

10-Day Spiritual Fitness Program...

Many of us have tried fitness programs and weight loss programs to help us to lose weight and get healthier but how about trying a 10-Day Spiritual fitness program. Have you ever tried that?

Well here you go:
First Day: Today let's dine on gratitude - thanking God for the life He gave us.

Second Day: Today let's skimp on pessimism and substitute optimism. Pray for sweet things and know that they will be served.

Third Day: Today let's go on a liquid diet of cheer sharing a cup of joy with everyone we meet.

Fourth Day: Today let's nibble away until we find something good in each member of our family and friends. Sift and sort until you find it!

Fifth Day: Today let's drink from the cup of forgiveness and let's discard every grudge.

Sixth Day: Today let's indulge ourself in prayer. Rest and ask for new energy.

Seventh Day: Today let's clean our pantry, remove self pity and selfishness.

Eighth Day: Today let's discard all of yesterday's leftovers letting today be sufficient unto itself. A warmed over past can spoil our day!

Ninth Day: Today let's serve low budget happiness food remembering that a tender touch, a pleasant smile, a call are great nourishment.

Tenth Day: Today let's fast - refrain from complaint and listen to others.

To think and pray about: Try putting all the above together in a 10-Day plan and watch God marvelously work and get you fit!

Have you cleaned out your clutter?

Do you dust your furniture? Do you arrange a beautiful centerpiece on your table? Maybe even Mop and Glo your linoleum? and yet leave your closets filled with skeletons?

Can you believe what you find when you do get around to cleaning out your closets?
---you find clothes that you've not worn in years
---you find an old tennis racket without any strings
---you find Christmas decorations
---you find musical instruments that no one ever learned to play
---you find an overbundance of all types of coats
---you find old diaries and letters from girlfriends, boyfriends

Cleaning a closet can be fun sometimes (like going through an old hopechest of treasures that have been kept by families for years)
Doing projects that we have been neglecting for a while sometimes can give us satisfaction. There is also another plus to cleaning out a closet - you can be alone. A closet is a nice place to sort our your thinking.

When you get in your daily closet you can go over a list of burden's that you have put on the shelf and had forgotton like dead man's bones.

In the corner of your closet and in the corner of your mind you will find cobwebs that will help you realize you need to dust off your thoughts so they can be pure in God's sight.

As you clean and sort out your closet you can give the clutter to the Lord.
And He will take it - what a wonderful feeling!

Something to think and pray about - Do you find yourself letting things "just hang on" that you should be giving to the Lord. Dig into your heart and mind - be honest with yourself; and give God all the clutter.

When you give God all that clutter then He has freedom to use you for His service.
Won't you let Him help you begin cleaning our your closet?

The One Another's.....

Have you ever really thought about the "one another's" in the Bible?

I'm sure many of us have read them but haven't really taken them into our hearts and studied on them.
Let's review some of the one another's God gave us in the Bible:

--Love one another
--Fellowship one with another
--Greet one another
--Be subject one to another
--Minister one to another
--Use hospitality one to another
--Be compassionate one to another
--Pray for one another
--Confess your faults one to another
--Grudge not one to another
--Speak no evil of one to another
--Consider one another
--Don't hate one another
--Edify one another
--Comfort one another
--Admonish one another
--Forgive one another
--Forbearing one another
--Lie not to one another
--Submit yourselves one to another
--Be kind to one another
--Don't envy one another
--Serve one another
--Don't destroy one another
--Care for one another
--Tarry one for another
--Go to law one with another
--Salute one another
--Receive one another
--Judge not one another
--Excuse one another
--Wash one another's feet
--Commune one with another
--Have peace one with another
--Don't betray one another
--Don't oppress one another
--Don't grumble against one another
--Shall not rule over one another
--Accept one another
--Live in harmony with one another
--Encourage one another

WOW! This is quite a lot of one another's and this wasn't even all of them.

Look over this list....how many of these do you do?.....how many do you not need to be doing?
Why not have a prayer with God right now and ask Him to help you change some of the one another's in your life and watch Him change you! watch Him change others as He changes you!
------Change--------Don't be against change instead embrace it when God moves in your life and allow Him to show you His majesty and power and let Him take you where He wants you to be.

Happy Birthday Regina....

Regina I know you probably won't be reading this until you return but I want to wish you a very HAPPPY BIRTHDAY!

Love your friend,
Beverly

Making a Vow.....

Do you know the meaning of the word vow?

Websters definition is "a solemn promise"
Holman's Bible dictionary definition is "voluntary expression of devotion"

Once a vow is made a person is obligated to keep his word. Read these verses (click here)

Many times when people are under pressure they are tempted to make rash promises. Making a promise is serious. In these verses Solomon gives us three instructions.
1. If you make a promise to God be sure you do what you promised.
2. Don't keep God waiting for you to keep your word.
3. It is better not to make a promise to God at all than to break a promise.

We can't make promises to God and then fail to make good on them and then expect to maintain a vital relationship with Him.

Did you know that God gave a law concerning vows? Read here Lev. 27

***When you make a vow to God you better mean what you say because God is going to hold you to it. You are dealing with someone who hears you and expects you to keep your promise to Him.

Isn't it the same with everyone else we come in contact with daily? We should keep the promises we tell them too?

But you know what, if it's important enough to us to keep the promises we make to God, then we will also keep promises to others.

Just by saying you “Will” do something, you have “Given your word!” Matthew 5:37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
We should always be truthful in what we say and we should say what we mean! Honor your word so that it will be right before the Lord. Integrity, honor and respect is the reward for keeping one's word. Let's all remember to live up to the high standards that the Lord has set before us. Keeping vows builds trust.

Think back to this past week alone "have you kept the vows you've made to God and others"?
If not is there something you need to do about it?

Prayer....do you have it in your life?

I wanted to share with each of you some of the awesome points brought out in today's sermon about prayer.

• We have more money
• We have more programs
• We have more media
• We have more people
• And yet we have less power in this history of the church because we are not praying!

Did you know that 65 - 70% of people will NOT go to church today?

One of our duties is that we must give ourselves totally to God and we should have no rest until God establishes His presence in our midst.

More than spending time with others we need to be spending time with God.

Without prayer commitment to God the enemy is stronger in our lives and we are weaker.

If we would clear the debris out of our life we can hear God when we talk to him. The walls of the church today are silent and God is waiting for us to speak.

Do you ever wonder what God is doing? Well if you will just pray you will know!

Now is the time if you've never prayed. If you don't know him say that prayer, asking him into your heart then the rest of your prayers from that moment forward will be awesome if you allow yourself to hear Him as you allow yourself to speak to Him.

Prayer, do you have it in your daily life?

Being Bold for Jesus....

Read this article posted today on Yahoo! Kudos to the teacher for teaching Jesus! Yeah!

click here....Teacher accused of branding a student

Waiting in Line to Worship.....hmmm...

OK let's go....my daughter shared a story on her blog today about the Serbian Orthodox Church and how the people showed up at that church standing in line to get in to hear a sermon and it was even spoken in a language they did not even understand what was being said. She stated how they were standing in line to get into the church and when you got inside the church you were literally touching each other and get this people "you were standing up the whole time". They were hungry for a word, but unfortuntately were not being given "The Word".

Can you imagine driving up to your church that you attend every Sunday and seeing a line going out the door, down the sidewalk or street where people have come because they need to hear from God and that the line is so long there is no room inside for them.

No, we don't see that today because we are not hungry enough to hear from God. We have to literally beg people to come to church and when they do come once, many times they don't come back unless they need God or the church to help them with something. If we could only have the same hunger for God....oh what He could do.

Oh and don't even think about telling people that they have to stand up for the entire service, they would just leave and not come back, again we aren't hungry enough to hear His Word He has for us because we want the comfort when we worship (nice pews, or chairs, air-conditioning, etc.) Let's get to the basics people. Let's desire, hunger for God and give ourselves to Him to use us so we can reach the world with the "WORD". Let's not just stand around listening to something in a language we don't understand instead let's get in line, go inside the church, hear the Word, receive the Word, receive Christ as Savior, then go out and spread the Word.

Let's get out of our comfort zones and help the lines in our churches grow longer and longer, people wanting to get in and not just for the purpose of having a line or a number of people but to see hungry people needing God. That's our job is to bring souls into the kingdom, oh but first we must bring ourself. Do you know God as your personal Savior? If not, why not get in the prayer line today, right now and ask him to come into your heart, forgive you of your sins and save you? That's all there is to it.

I'm praying for you that may read this and make a decision for Christ today, and I would love to hear from you if you did. You can click on the comment section and send me a quick note.
God bless you all.

Walking on Water....

Here is something great I read today I wanted to share with all of you.

It's amazing what we can accomplish if we keep our eyes off our circumstances and on the One who is in control of them.

Sometimes like Peter we walk on water.
We stand above our circumstances which are like the swirling tempest of the sea
But then, like Peter
We take our eyes off Jesus and concentrate on things below.
Soon we start to sink.
How we long to have a consistent water-walking-eyes-on-Jesus-faith.

Sweet Honey out of a rock....

Psalms 81:16 In this verse God shows His children one of His promises that He will satisy us with honey out of the rock.

Keep in mind that honey is one of the sweetest things that nature produces for us and a rock is the hardest thing in nature. So here, we have sweetness coming out of hardness...honey out of the rock? We both know that God is not speaking literally here because we both know that honey does not come out of a rock but we either get it from a honeycomb or a jar.

The Lord is telling us something much deeper in this verse. "that we are going to have hard places in our life and we are going to run up against the rocks", but we don't need to be discouraged, because He is going to give us honey out of the rock and we are going to experience sweetness out of the hard experiences in our life.

No matter how many rocks we encounter in our lives we will always find honey in the rocks if we will just turn everything over to the Lord.

Have you ever truly meditated on the difficulties the Lord Jesus faced while He was on earth
--born into a poor home
--never really owned much
--born into a despised and rejected race
--When He tried to do good things people tried to turn them into evil
--When he forgave a sinner, He was called a friend of the sinner
--If He ate a meal with a friend He was called a glutton
--He spoke the truth, yet He was called a liar
--He revealed God's power, yet the religious leaders said He was in a league with the devil
--Every where He turned he faced difficulties

.....But He never ran away from hard places of life. He knew He was doing His Father's will, so he accepted the rocks and the honey that was in them.

Yep Jesus faced the rocks of life and then men took him outside the city and crucified Him on a rock a Hill called Calvary, a place that looked like a skull.
And then his friends took his body and placed it in a rock (Joseph's new tomb)
Then He arose from the dead, from the Hill of Calvary and from the tomb flows the sweet honey of salvation --- honey out of the rock!

Have you trusted Jesus as your Savior yet? God says to us "O taste and see that the Lord is good". Once you know Christ you can then face the hard places of life with confidence and courage because God will give you "honey out of the rock".

How tired are you......

How many times a day do you find yourself saying "I'm tired"?
I can't even fathom how many times this week alone I have said that. I have had so much going on in my life, staying up til midnight most every night for the past few weeks. (doing what you may be asking?)

-----Fixing computer problems (of which all are good now)
-----house work, cleaning, washing cars, washing clothes, groceries, etc. etc.
-----Reading my precious Bible
-----Blogging
-----E-mailing

and on and on......

We do so many things in our life, we are so busy. I just pray that I never get too tired or too busy to spend time with my heavenly Father who gives me back the energy I need for the next moment in my life. He's never too tired to take care of me. Thank you Lord!

Serving God.....

Let me share the words with you of a chorus from a song our choir did at church tonite.

Lead me Lord, I will follow

Lead me Lord, I will go

You have called me, I will answer

Lead me Lord, I will go.

WOW! what a message this little chorus has for all of us. Do we have a willingness to serve Him and Follow Him when He calls us to duty? There are over 1200 scripture references in the Bible using a form of the word serve (service, servant, served, etc) with this many references we should get the message that our job is to serve.

When God calls us to service are we going? are we following? click here and you can see that God knows our future, provides our agenda and goes with us as we fulfill His mission and we can have boundless hope. This does not mean that we will be spared pain and suffering or hardship but God will see us through every moment to a glorious conclusion.

Has He called you to service of some kind? I'm not just talking about the mission field.

Have you answered His call? If not, what are you waiting on? Are you scared? Don't be, He will lead you all the way.

Every person who receives Christ as their Savior will be called to do something in service for Him and others, answer that call and get out there and work for Him.

**Make yourself available

**Be grateful for this call

**Be faithful to His call

*********************When He calls, Will you answer?************************

Don't miss out on wonderful opportunities God places in your path every day!!!

BCM mission teams......

For all of you on the Francis Marion University BCM Mission trips. I want you all to know that I'm praying for each one of you and your teams daily. I know that God will and is already using you in so many fantastic ways that you will be sharing with us for months when you return.

I get to keep up with some of you who I have blog addresses for and I get excited reading about all the things that are happening with each of you and the great pictures you are sharing. For the others I don't have addresses for I wish I did so I could experience your trips as well with you.

Stay safe, stay focused on Him and He will lead you where you need to be....and doing what He needs you to do daily....

What a great phone call today....

What an awesome phone call I had with Kelly today. I shared some very personal feelings with her that God has been hitting me with the past several months and it felt really good to share those with her after all this time. God is getting me ready for things in my life that are changing and it really helped me to hear what she had to say.

You know it's great to get on the phone and talk to a friend or family member when you need some encouragement or just a lift of somekind. We can't call God on a physical phone because we don't need a phone to get in touch with Him. If we know Him as our Savior all we have to do is call on His name and He's right there to listen, hear and answer our prays and you know what else if we know Him we don't even have to call His name because He goes with us everywhere, He's with us ALL the time!

Thank you Lord for being there everywhere we go. Are we taking Him everywhere we go? hmmm... just saying maybe we need to think about it and make sure, because we will be faced with moments that we need to share Him with others and we need to always be alert and ready! This happened to me at work on Thursday (I got to share Jesus with one of our shop production guys, I was PUMPED!)

If you are reading this and you don't know Jesus personally let me invite you to accept Him today click here
I would love to hear from you, please reply with a comment

God showing us things.....

Wed. night at church I met with a precious friend of mine for some Godly counseling that I was in need of and before that meeting and afterwards I was just praying for God to show me a particular thing that I was wanting Him to change in me. And BOOM! when I got home to my computer problems His answer was shown.

Sometimes when you pray and ask God for help or guidance he doesn't answer right away or sometimes he even tells us we have to wait awhile, but sometimes like Wed. night he answers you right then, isn't that GREAT! sometimes it might not be what we expect either.

But remember God knows what is BEST for each one of us! Please pray for me as God continues to help me and show me how to handle and deal with my particular issue.

Computer Problems Part 2

Well I've fixed many of my computer problems but I still have a few to go.

Computer Problems

I'm having computer problems so not sure when I will be able to get back to regular sharing with ya'll
Please stay tuned......and I'll at least try to keep you updated from my work computer

Are you sleepy?

You know sometimes unexpectantly your body just gets so tired you could fall asleep at any moment. Think about the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, every time Jesus came back to where they were He found them asleep. He even said to Peter "Couldn't you stay awake and watch with me even one hour"?

Jesus used Peter's drowsiness to teach us a lesson about all the kinds of temptations we could and would face in our lives. The way to overcome temptation is to keep alert and pray!

Keeping alert means being aware of the possibilites of temptation that surround us everyday and being spiritually equipped to fight it off. Temptation strikes when we are most vulnerable and we can't resist those temptations alone, even if we have a willing spirit.

Prayer is the strength that can shore up our defenses and defeat Satan's power.

Jesus gave us an example of what to do to resist temptation:
1. Pray to God (Mark 14:35)
2. Seek support of friends and loved ones (Mark 14:33, 37, 40-41)
3. Focus on the purpose God has given us (Mark 14:36)

Even though our spirit is willing our body is weak.
Are you staying in the Word and staying in prayer? These are the two strongest places you can be in to keep you from being tempted and to keep your body strong and your spirit lifted and filled.

In the past several weeks God has been helping me to fall in love with His word all over again like I was a brand new Christian. I get up in the mornings not even wanting to get ready for work but to just spend time in prayer and reading the Bible, or my devotion book, or in my prayer journal and at night when I come home again I want to get right to studying and reading forgetting all about my responsibilities at home. And oh what wonderful conversations I have in the car with God on the way to work in the mornings. God is renewing my spirit every day and I get excited wondering where He will lead me next.

Who knows Kelly may not be in the only McCormick in our family that God calls to do mission work. God is moving in my life in ways that catch me by surprise and I look forward to each new day to find out His answers for me and what my next mission or challenge will be for me on that day.

What about you? are you sleeping through your life like the disciples did or are you alert and praying and waiting on God's next call to you? Let's wake up and get out and serve Him who never sleeps but is always there when we call on Him.

Do you know how much God loves you?

-God loves you enough to let you go
-God loves you enough to let you hit rock bottom
-God loves you enough to let you come back to him
-God loves you enough that He will run to meet you where you are

That's how much God loves you!

So how much do you love God? Tell me about it.....

I'm Amazed.....

I am so amazed at the many ways God continues to bless my life and show me how amazing He is.

Here are some amazing things God showed me today in my life:

• In church this morning God got all over me, I started crying during one of our choir songs because His glory just began to be renewed all over again and He was showing me who He is in my life.
• During the sermon, one word to describe it WOW! Many things were shared but some that really were great reminders for me were (Many years ago Jesus made a pledge to us that He is coming again! - there is no other meeting in my life more important than me meeting with the Lord everyday! - only God can change a person's heart! -
• God showed me that He is in control of EVERYTHING!
• God allowed me to talk to Kelly on Skype tonite, that was just AWESOME! thanks God for technology!

I continue to be amazed at every minute of my life that God uses me, changes me and just helps me to see and experience His Power! God has really been moving in my life and I get excited to see what He has in store next.

What about you? what has He been doing in your life lately? would you share it with me? Just clink on the word comment below and let me know, I would love to keep you in prayer.